How to Enable ActiveMQ Web Console on ServiceMix 4.4

A few days ago I was helping an Apache user getting the ActiveMQ Web Console up and running on ServiceMix 4.4. At first instance, it seems to be a trivial setting but it's a little bit tricky.

Out of the box, every ServiceMix instance comes with an embedded ActiveMQ JMS (Java Message Service) broker. This feature makes it easy to communicate between Camel routes using persistent messages and also to distribute messages over multiple instances using clustering or load balancing.

The ActiveMQ Web Console feature is included  in any ActiveMQ distribution and you'll probably want to have it installed in ServiceMix as well to make sure you can monitor your JMS broker.

So, the first thing you have to do is to install the war feature running the following command:

karaf@root> features:install war

Then you can do run the following command to install the ActiveMQ Web Console:

karaf@root> features:install activemq-web-console 

This command will install and start the web console automatically with an embedded broker which you  can access going to the following URL: http://localhost:8181/activemqweb


But that brings the first issue... Once you have the default embedded ActiveMQ broker running then the Web Console will fail to start since it also tries to start an instance of the ActiveMQ basically on the same port number. It's quite frustrating to install a feature on ServiceMix and not be able to test it or execute it right away.

So, to configure the ActiveMQ Web Console to connect to the default embedded broker you have to do a little extra configuration change but that should be straightforward.

Go to $SMX_HOME/etc and edit the system.properties file then add the following details:

webconsole.type=properties
webconsole.jms.url=tcp://localhost:61616
webconsole.jmx.url=service:jmx:rmi:///jndi/rmi://localhost:1099/karaf-root
webconsole.jmx.user=smx
webconsole.jmx.password=smx

Save it and (re)start ServiceMix. That should be enough to get the ActiveMQ Web Console connected to the default embedded broker in ServiceMix.

If you don't want to monitor the default embedded broker but want to stick with the instance that the Web Console starts for you then all you will have to do is to uninstall the default embedded ActiveMQ broker with the following command:

karaf@root> features:uninstall activemq-broker 

and then restart ServiceMix. This way there will be no conflicts on the ActiveMQ port number anymore.

I hope this helps to clarify some of the issues out there...

Enjoy the ride!

Throttler Enterprise Integration Pattern Demo

The second video demonstration posted to the FuseSource website describes the Throttler EIP (Enterprise Integration Pattern) pattern and shows you how you can achieve that with Camel and the Fuse IDE.

So, take a look on the video below to understand more about the pattern.

Enjoy the ride!

Endpoint Browsing and Route Tracing with Fuse IDE

This week two 5-minute demos were posted to the FuseSource website. The first one describes how to do endpoint browsing and route tracing with Fuse IDE.

I've linked the video here too, so you can take a look on these features.

Enjoy the ride!

Reducing Spring Dependency with Apache Camel 2.9

Claus Ibsen (@davsclaus) brilliantly blogged about a new fundamental change on Apache Camel 2.9. Basically, the goal is to reduce the dependency of the Spring framework JAR files in the core components of Camel and other components where they are used.

You can read more about this exciting change on Claus' blog entry http://davsclaus.blogspot.com/2011/08/apache-camel-29-reduced-dependency-on.html

Enjoy the ride!

New Fuse IDE 2.0 Release

We recently announced (http://fusesource.com/press-releases/fusesource-press-release-8-2-2011/) a new release of the Fuse IDE (http://fusesource.com/products/fuse-ide/). 

Now at version 2.0, the Fuse IDE (an Eclipse plugin) builds on a visual environment that enables developers to "drag-and-drop" the integration and mediation components needed to connect several systems and applications. I'd like to give you some highlights of this very exciting release.

Additionally to the already known features (http://fusesource.com/collateral/112/), here is what's included:

• Endpoint browsing – which makes it easy to see and inspect the available messages on endpoints or JMS  queues

• Message drag and drop – from an endpoint or JMS queue to any Camel endpoint or JMS destination to quickly try out integration scenarios
• JMX explorer – tailored to view Fuse integration applications

• Graphical viewer – displays all brokers, queues, topics, Camel endpoints, and Camel routes available in a remote JVM

• Route tracing – step through each version of each message to see how message headers and bodies change as they move through routes

So, don't wait to try out these new features... download the new Fuse IDE, provide feedback and we can make it even better!

Enjoy the ride!